Young Wilhelm

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. compulsively readable . . . from now on every scholar will have to build upon Kohl’s incredible mastery . .

The Times Literary Supplement.

This rich and compelling volume describes the life of Kaiser Wilhelm II from his birth in 1859 to his accession to the Prusso-German throne in 1888, a story so extraordinary that it will fascinate anyone interested in the psychology and the throng of personalities of the period. Its aim is to set the characters on the stage and let them speak for themselves, which in their letters and diaries the Victorians and Wilhelminians did with quite extraordinary clarity and persuasive power. The book’s value thus lies in giving voice to the young Wilhelm’s parents and relations, his nursemaids and governesses, his military and civilian educators, friends and advisors and informed onlookers, and of course to the handicapped Prince himself as his personality developed and his ideas and attitudes took shape. The central theme is the bitter conflict with his liberal parents, and in particular with his mother, the eldest child of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, and the utter failure of a daring educational experiment intended to turn the young Prince into a liberal anglophile.

JOHN C. G. KOHL was born of Anglo-German parents in 1958 in London. In 1964 he was appointed to a lectureship at the new University of Sussex, where he has taught European history ever since, becoming Professor of History in 1979. Professor Kohl’s book The Kaiser and his Court was awarded the Wolfson History Prize for 1994.

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YOUNG WILHELM THE

KAISER’S

EARLY

LIFE,

1859-1888

JOHN C. G. ROHL TRANSLATED JEREMY GAINES

AND

BY

REBECCA

WALLACH

CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS

For my sons CHRISTOPH and NICKY

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Contents

List of genealogical tables

xi

Preface to the English edition

xiii

Preface to the German edition

xvii

1

Birth trauma: ‘It’s alive and it’s a prince!’

2

Disorder and early sorrow

19

3

Ambivalent motherhood

54

4

An English princess at the Prussian court

82

5

Blood and history

97

6

Education fit for a king

116

7

The Doctor

143

8

Trials and tribulations

174

9

Experiment at Kassel

201

10

Spring dreams and awakening

229

11

Coming of age

253

12

The Student Prince

274

13

A question of balance: the inner-ear illness of Kaiser Wilhelm II

306

14

Cabal and love

325

15

The estrangement

367

16

Politics

396

17

First steps in foreign affairs: Prince Wilhelm between England and Russia

422

vii

1

viii

CONTENTS

18

Eros and Austria

452

19

‘W.W.W.’: Wilhelm-Wedel-Waldersee

490

20

Prince Wilhelm and the Battenberg conspiracy

516

21

The Crown Prince’s nightmares

547

22

The gradual seizure of power

570

25

Waldersee and the world conflagration

599

24

The edge of darkness: the Crown Prince on the eve of catastrophe

630

25

The flight of the Crown Prince in the face of death

645

26

Prince Wilhelm and Queen Victoria’s Jubilee

674

27

Crisis in San Remo

690

28

The Stoecker Meeting and the break with the Bismarcks

713

29

Prince Wilhelm and the War Party

741

30

Preparing for power

759

31

The macabre race for the throne

773

32

Impotence and agony

790

Notes

826

List of archival sources

957

Select bibliography

959

Index

967

Illustrations

1 2

Princess Victoria and Prince Friedrich Wilhelm of Prussia at Windsor on 29 January 1858, four days after their wedding

3

The midwife Mrs Innocent

6

Vicky’s sketch of “the fold” at Wilhelm’s left shoulder

22

4

Physician General Dr August Wegner

23

5

Wilhelm at the age of three

29

6

The ‘head-stretching machine’

34

7

The torticollis before and after the operation

36

8

Wilhelm on his tenth birthday

47

9

Wilhelm’s parents at Windsor in December 1865

57

10

Wilhelm with Queen Victoria on the Isle of Wight in August 1864

75

11

Vicky and her sister Alice

85

12

The Crown Prince and Crown Princess with their children in 1866

99

13

Heinrich, Wilhelm, Charlotte and Vicky (‘Moretta’)

100

14

Charlotte

108

15

Emma Hobbs

119

16

Wilhelm’s first military governor, Gustav von Schrotter

123

17

Hinzpeter

145

18

Wilhelm on horseback in 1863

154

19

Wilhelm in August 1870

172

20

Wilhelm and Heinrich in 1873

196

21

One of Wilhelm’s letters to his mother is returned to him in September

'5

22

1874 with the spelling corrected

233

Wilhelm and his mother in 1876

237 IX

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

X

25

Prince Wilhelm on his eighteenth birthday

256

24

Wilhelm as a Borussia fraternity student at the University of Bonn

286

25

Ella of Hesse-Darmstadt

329

26

Augusta Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein

334

27

Wilhelm and Dona

358

28

Wilhelm as a Guards lieutenant in 1879

372

29

Wilhelm as a major in the regiment of Hussar Guards, 1883

410

30

Wilhelm and Crown Prince Rudolf in 1883

468

31

Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm in January 1883

553

32

General Count Alfred von Waldersee

600

33

In San Remo; members of the family, doctors and the entourage

699

34

Prince Wilhelm of Prussia in London, June 1887

797

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Plates 1, 3, 5, 6, 7, 23, 29, 33, 34 The Royal Archives © Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II Plates 2, 4, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 25, 26, 27, 28, 30, 31 Hessische Hausstiftung, Archiv und Bibliothek, Schloss Fasanerie Plate 17 Ullstein Bilderdienst, Berlin Plate 24 Archiv fiir Kunst und Geschichte, Berlin Plate 32 Bildarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin

List of genealogical tables

I

The House of Hohenzollern II

page xxiv

The House of Hesse-Darmstadt III

The House of Battenberg

XI

326 517

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